Kenneth Sutton's aide-mémoire
The New York Times reports Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries
Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries.
The chaplains were directed by the Bureau of Prisons to clear the shelves of any books, tapes, CDs and videos that are not on a list of approved resources.
A tip of the hat to Philocrites.
I’d love to quote the conclusion of Nancy’s Apology: Harry Potter and the Eerie Silence, but that just wouldn’t be cool. It’s longish for a blog post, and worth every moment spent.
I don’t think it was the pagan or magic aspects of the Potter books that drove the conservatives nutty: I think it was the Christian elements.
Rowling, who is not a professed Christian, took 2000 years of christendom–in the form of symbols, legends, archetypes, allegories, and values–and put it into a new story.
(Hat tip to Johan Maurer and QuakerQuaker.org)
Yesterday I was on a panel in Second Life for a University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism fellowship program project. The fellows had researched and created reports on “Faces of Faith: God Sex Family” and decided to bring their reports into Second Life. As part of their weeklong exhibit, they organized this panel of SL religious figures (video). It was a real privilege to be on the panel.
Sometimes I read something that both makes my editor’s heart go pitter-pat and feeds my spirit. Doug Muder, a writer I’m glad to be getting to know better, has posted The Go(o)d Crutch at his blog Free and Responsible Search. I heartily recommend it.
Very nice rant over at iMinister about how “transformation and religious education are uniquely the purposes of church.” The specifics of the rant are very UU-specific, but the underlying concern is apropos to Quaker meetings as well.
A very nice article in USA Today: Faithful build a Second Life for religion online, even if they did ignore the Quakers (and almost skipped the Buddhists and assorted Pagans). Near the end is a statement that rings true for me:
Indeed, says Internet expert Julian Dibbell, “virtual reality is in some ways an essentially spiritual experience.”
“Sayings of the Jewish Buddhist”
Be here now.
Be someplace else later.
Is that so complicated?
Tip of the hat to Noli Irritare Leones.
Longer excerpts of the interviews I conducted with members of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Second Life have been published as a companion to the story I wrote. The excerpts include one interview that was cut from the edited story.
Unless something unusual occured, as of yesterday I am no longer a member of the Religious Society of Friends. Here’s the letter I sent to my meeting:
Dear Friends,
This letter is to let you know of my decision to resign my membership in Beacon Hill Friends Meeting. I have not, for some time, been acting as a member of the meeting; this resignation is to bring my formal status into harmony with my behavior. While there are many people in Beacon Hill Meeting and in the wider Religious Society of Friends who are dear to me, this affection is not, in my heart, an appropriate reason to remain in membership.
I don’t think I’ve rejected any of the values of Quakerism, but I’ve been going through a prolonged period of spiritual dryness and have not felt any drawing towards Quakerism as a way out of it. In fact, I have some glimmerings of interest in Buddhism. For most of the past twenty years, being a Quaker has played a major role in my sense of identity, encompassing vocation, avocation, community, and lifestyle. It is painful and confusing to realize that things are no longer clear. What has become clear is that I need to create an open space in my heart–silence, if you will–in which to seek for my right spiritual path.
It may be that my journey will lead me back into the Religious Society of Friends. Ironically, I have become involved in drawing together a community of Quakers in a particular Internet venue. If my journey does lead me back into active participation in a meeting, I am prepared to reapply for membership should that occur.
Thank you, Friends, for the fellowship and welcome I found when I moved to Boston over five years ago. I’m sorry to find myself no longer among you.
with affection,
Kenneth Sutton
(The Internet venue I mention is Second Life, where the most recent meeting for worship, which I could not attend, drew sixteen people.)
Getting around to writing this letter took a long time. I finally couldn’t not do it. I feel a much greater sense of integrity already. (Having objected to accepting the membership application of someone living at a distance, I felt keenly the lack of integrity in continuing to hold membership when I was not participating in meeting.)
The questions of identity are, indeed, hard. Last night I was at shiva for my friend Barbara, and when I was introduced to one person had to explain that while I was a Quaker, I no longer am. And when discussing my work, the immediate question that follows my statement that I’m not a UU is, what are you? One dear friend last night named it exactly when she said I can no longer use Quakerism as a crutch to shape identity or to maintain relationships.